theparkerfamily.org

Month: July 2010

  • oh, ethyl — we hardly knew ye so well

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    i love going to the petting zoo, and — according to gowalla, and foursquare before that — we’ve been to the “kid’s farm” roughly two dozen times since early May.we go because i love that sparklet enjoys going to a “farm,” even if it is a fake farm with fru-fru animals like Miniature Mediterranean Donkeys and Anglo-Nubian Goats. that, and it’s only a couple blocks away so we go all the time.

    today, however, we noticed someone was missing — Ethyl, one of two Nigerian Dwarf Goats. (fwiw, the other is named Lucy … in a fit of “I Love Lucy” hilarity.)

    we asked one of the zoo keepers (who was really quite worked up about it) about what happened and she said Ethyl passed away earlier in the week after some time in the Zoo’s hospital.

    now, sparklet’s obviously too young to know any better … but before we lose any more Zoo friends, we decided to do a “guestbook” of those we see the most:

    ECPA20100719_4121 by [ecpark]
    Pat
    Miniature Mediterranean Donkey    		 ECPA20100719_4115 by [ecpark]
    Giuseppe
    Miniature Mediterranean Donkey
    ECPA20100719_4097 by [ecpark]
    George
    Miniature Mediterranean Donkey    		 ECPA20100719_4085 by [ecpark]
    Flash
    Miniature Mediterranean Donkey
    ECPA20100719_4092 by [ecpark]
    Tulip
    Holstein Cow    		 ECPA20100719_4091 by [ecpark]
    Rose
    Polled Hereford Cow
    ECPA20100719_4140 by [ecpark]
    Mortimer
    San Clemente Island Goat    		 ECPA20100719_4102 by [ecpark]
    Iris
    Anglo-Nubian Goat
    ECPA20100719_4104 by [ecpark]
    Lucky
    Anglo-Nubian Goat    		 ECPA20100719_4137 by [ecpark]
    Marla
    San Clemente Island Goat
    ECPA20100719_4138 by [ecpark]
    Lucy
    Nigerian Dwarf Goat    		 ECPA20100719_4150 by [ecpark]
    Cirrus
    Alpaca
    ECPA20100719_4090 by [ecpark]
    Orion
    Alpaca    		 ECPA20100719_4080 by [ecpark]
    Ziggy
    Alpaca
    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    kids farm, national zoo, washington, dc

  • good night, mommy!

    hope you’re reading the blog from san francisco 🙂

  • out: national gallery of art

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  • go speed racer, go!

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    photo of the week // week forty

  • mushroom risotto

    well, i’m cooking again.

    it took a decade for me to finally remember by culinary heritage — my father was a chef for 30-odd years — but i’m starting to have fun in the kitchen again.

    i used to love it.

    my father and i would regularly cook thanksgiving dinner for 400+ and we’d have a ball (a slightly exhausting ball, but a ball none-the-less).

    i have no idea what happened in between, but it’s passed — and the lady sparkler is now too busy with a small child to tell me what i’m doing wrong (bonus!).

    tonight was a risotto with wild mushrooms, a recipe that i picked up from a office-retreat-slash-cooking-class with Chef Susan Holt at CulinAerie (great class, btw — highly recommend it).

    full recipe after the jump.

    (more…)

  • “a little to the right, daddy…”

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  • guestbook: the talimo’s

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    more pictures (and a short video) on taliandmo.com.
    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    guestbook: the talimo’s

  • what’s next … an earthquake?

    well, after a brief return to normalcy, sparklet’s sleeping habits are back to being a royal pain in the rear. she’s fighting us going down, and isn’t usually staying down for long.at one point this week i stopped asking God for world peace, and started asking him to focus on letting me sleep.

    based on last night’s events, he wasn’t amused:

    • 8:20 pm — after 40 minutes of trying, sparklet is finally asleep … but not until a full hour after her bedtime.
    • 8:35 pm — ha, ha! just kidding, we’re awake.
    • 9:52 pm — seriously, sparklet. go to sleep. i walk in and she is sitting upright, but listing deeply to the side because she can’t keep her eyes open.
    • 10:28 pm — the lady sparkler finishes up pumping, and we bunk down for the night.
    • 1:10 am — it’s morning in babyland! the lady sparkler takes the first shift and stuffs a bottle in her face.
    • 1:25 am — the lady sparkler runs out of steam, and the hollering gets me up and out of bed. i take over.
    • 1:38 am — oops, looks like sparklet’s wet through her diaper! and now, after 25 minutes of feeding, she’s wide away and not the least bit interested in taking a bottle and/or going to bed.
    • 2:10 am — after tipping sparklet over for the umpteenth time (i swear she would try to sleep sitting up if we’d let her) she’s out, and i start for bed.
    • 3:01 am — i’m just about asleep when i get a call from a friend who is due to birth a baby girl in a couple of weeks. my heart leaps like a gizelle. turns out she hit the wrong button on her phone. false alarm.
    • 4:14 am — i’m just about asleep when sparklet’s up again, but (haha!) this time she is sound asleep once again by the time i get to the crib. funny.
    • 5:01 am — i’m rattled awake when an earthquake strikes suburban maryland. I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP.
    • 5:30 am — just about asleep (for the first time since 1:10am) i remember to shut off my alarm so that i can squeeze an extra couple of minutes of sleep in the morning.
    • 6:58 am — the lady sparklet wakes me up to tell me that i don’t need to get up. (still figuring that one out.)
    • 7:20 am — i give up and go to work.

    there you go. independent proof that God doesn’t have a sense of humor. at least, not about sleep vs. world peace.

  • video: first waves

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7hsXI0slHw

    after a week of “is that really a wave” questions, we’re willing to call it … it’s a wave. and once she starts, she just won’t stop.

  • “i hear these come in chocolate, too?”

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